The present invention relates in general to fabric slipcovers for covering furniture, and in particular, to a new and useful semi-fitted slipcover with provision for closely covering a T-cushion.
It is known to cover various pieces of seating furniture such as sofas, love seats and chairs, with fabric slipcovers. These slipcovers were traditionally custom cut and fitted by skilled workers and thus were quite expensive. If the owner of the furniture piece wished to buy a different piece of furniture of the same style, the fitted cover of the older piece could not be used for the new piece, particularly if the new piece was larger than the old piece.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,549,355 to the subject inventor discloses a slipcover having an elastic band stitched at selected positions along the inside of the cover such that when the cover is placed on a furniture piece, such as a sofa or chair, the cover takes the shape of the furniture piece, thus eliminating the time consuming and expensive steps which were required to fit a cover to the furniture piece.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,547,249 discloses a slipcover which is not fitted but which requires the use of stabilizing devices with the slipcover to shape it to the furniture piece.
Some furniture has so-called T-cushions, which are seat cushions that have short projections which extend across the front of the arm or arms of the furniture. These T-cushions are particularly difficult and usually expensive to fit. They can be draped by unfitted slipcovers in a rather sloppy manner, for example see U.S. Pat. No. 4,838,610, or fit with individually cut and sewn cushion covers that are unique for each cushion and thus expensive to make and usable only with cushions of the same size.
A need remains for a versatile, semi-fitted slipcover which can be used on various shapes and sizes of seating furniture that includes at least one (but generally two) T-cushions.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a semi-fitted furniture slipcover for covering a piece of seating furniture having a body, a back extending upwardly from the body, at least one arm extending upwardly of the body, a seat with at least one T-cushion over the body, and the T-cushion having a projection extending in front of the arm.
Another object of the invention is to provide such a slipcover which comprises: a back panel for covering a back surface of the furniture back; a front panel connected to the back panel for covering top and front surfaces of the furniture back; a seat panel connected to the front panel for covering the furniture seat including a top surface of the T-cushion; an arm panel connected to the front and seat panels, for covering inner, outer, top and front surfaces of the arm; a lower panel connected to the seat panel for covering a front surface of the furniture body; and a side panel connected to the lower and arm panels for covering a side surface of the furniture arm and body; the lower, seat, side and arm panels each having portions adjacent the arm front and T-cushion projection which are connected to each other to together form a T-cushion assembly, the assembly having no part extending under the T-cushion and a slot between the arm front and the T-cushion projection, and being form fit to the lower, seat, side and arm panel portions that are adjacent the arm front and T-cushion projection; all of the panels being sewn to each other to form a one-piece slipcover for the furniture.
The various features of novelty which characterize the invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and specific objects attained by its uses, reference is made to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which a preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated.